AWB Chapter 1997 This price is too high for you to bear!
Chapter 1997 This price is too high for you to bear!
Shangguan Wuji slowly sat down, glanced at his daughter, noticed a complex emotion flickering in her eyes, and then slowly lifted his bottom off the stool.
"Wanqing, don't try to challenge me..."
Shangguan Wuji's words suddenly made Wanqing's heart clench.
She knew that her time was running out, and only by fighting one more time could she save her life.
Otherwise, it will be even more difficult to see Li Xiangnan again in the future.
“Father, you know that Mother loved snow the most when she was alive!” Her gaze drifted to the window. “She said that snow is the cleanest thing in the world, it can cover up all filth and wash away all sins! So every year she would go to the Western Hills and walk in the snow for a very long time, until her footprints were covered by fresh snow, as if we had never been here!”
Her voice was choked with emotion, but she quickly regained her composure. "The last thing my mother said to me when she passed away was: 'When you miss your mother, go see the snow. The snow will keep you company in my place!'"
She turned her head and looked at her father again, her eyes already brimming with tears, but they didn't fall: "So last night, I really just went to see the snow! I miss my mother, I miss the feeling of her holding my hand and walking in the snow, as if the whole world had disappeared, but I still had my mother! I miss the white breath she exhaled when she spoke to me, so fragrant and cool. And I miss the way her eyes curved when she smiled!"
“Father!” She paused abruptly, “So many years have passed, do you still remember what she looks like? Do you remember what she liked, disliked, and said? Or is it that in your heart, there is only the interests of the Shangguan family, only those shady schemes and struggles?”
Shangguan Wuji frowned, a hint of annoyance flashing across his face: "I'm asking you about last night. I warned you not to try to challenge me! Don't change the subject!"
"Okay, then I'll talk about what happened last night!"
Shangguan Wanqing wiped away her tears and straightened her back. "Father, do you think I leaked something to Li Xiangnan? That caused some mistake or oversight in the Shangguan family, leading to the failure of some plan?"
The question was too direct and too sharp, leaving Shangguan Wuji speechless for a moment.
In front of his daughter, he naturally wouldn't mention the plan involving the ten families of Yanjing and having people pretend to be ordinary citizens to cause trouble.
Admitting to it would be like slapping yourself in the face.
“Of course I don’t understand what you’re planning, and I don’t want to know!” Shangguan Wanqing looked at her father, her tone serene: “But what I want to tell you is that Li Xiangnan is a good person. He has saved many people and helped many people, and he has never harmed anyone! If he can resolve today’s crisis, it is his ability, his wisdom and strategy, not because of me! Naturally, I don’t have the ability to help him!”
"As for what you said about the servants' background and those old stories, Father, have you ever considered that perhaps Li Xiangnan was already aware of your targeting of him and turned around to investigate the Shangguan family? He already knew that someone was secretly working against him!"
Shangguan Wuji's eyes suddenly turned cold.
"Are you threatening me?"
“I’m just stating the facts,” Shangguan Wanqing said without backing down. “Father, you always think too simply of others and too clever of yourself! But Li Xiangnan is no ordinary person, and you knew that beforehand!”
The room fell silent.
This silence was heavier than any before.
Looking at his daughter, Shangguan Wuji realized for the first time that his obedient daughter, who had always been well-behaved, actually had such a strong temper.
Like her mother, a woman who seemed gentle but was actually stubborn.
"Good, very good!" Shangguan Wuji laughed, a smile with an indescribable ruthlessness. "Since you're so protective of Li Xiangnan, and since you're so opinionated, then your father will grant your wish!"
He straightened up and clapped his hands.
Footsteps immediately came from outside the door, and two burly servants pushed the door open and entered, bowing and waiting for orders.
Upon seeing the two people, Shangguan Wanqing's face turned cold, and her legs went weak.
"Wanqing, tell me, did you leak the information to Li Xiangnan? What else did you tell him?"
Shangguan Wuji looked at his daughter again, wanting to give her one last chance.
Shangguan Wanqing's expression froze for a moment before she quickly regained her composure, even revealing a hint of stubbornness deep in her eyes. She guessed that her father might punish her, but she still shook her head firmly and said, "Father, I don't know what you mean. I haven't contacted Li Xiangnan!"
"..."
Upon hearing this, Shangguan Wuji's face turned extremely ugly. Perhaps even he hadn't expected that his daughter would ultimately side with outsiders.
"Good, very good, Wanqing, you really are just like your mother, you haven't disappointed me!"
He turned away from his daughter, waved his hand, and said directly, "Miss is tired and needs to rest! Take her to the cellar and let her rest for a few days! No one is allowed to let her out without my order!"
"Yes!"
Shangguan Wanqing's expression finally changed.
She opened her mouth, and the words "No!" almost escaped her lips, but the thought that if she spoke, the man she loved so deeply would be exposed, and she would be relentlessly interrogated by her father.
Then my relationship with Li Xiangnan will be exposed, and my father will know that I am in contact with him!
Moreover, she knew that her father's methods would only become more and more intense, and he would even make her do many things she didn't want to do, in order to blackmail Li Xiangnan!
She didn't want to see this happen!
So at that moment, the plea for mercy was stuck in her throat and she didn't utter it!
But her face, neck, and limbs still trembled instinctively because of the content of those words!
cellar!
That was the darkest, dampest, and most sunless place in the Shangguan family home.
When she was little, she heard screams coming from inside; her older brothers and sisters had all been skinned alive inside.
One time, she couldn't take it anymore and secretly ran in to bring water to her sister who was about to be beaten to death. But it was that time that she experienced the cellar and was locked up together for three whole days!
After she came out, she fell seriously ill and developed a deep fear of darkness and enclosed spaces.
Her father knew, of course, that she was afraid of the dark, and even more afraid of the cellar.
That was a shadow from her childhood.
Therefore, whenever he makes a mistake, he will choose to punish her in this way.
“Father…” Recalling the past and the dark side of the Shangguan family, Shangguan Wanqing’s voice trembled involuntarily.
"What? Are you scared now?" Shangguan Wuji looked at her, his eyes showing no pity whatsoever. "Weren't you very brave just now? Didn't you say you would protect Li Xiangnan? Wanqing, remember this: when you choose to stand on someone's side, it means you have to bear the corresponding price!"
He turned his head to look out the window: "And you can't afford the price!"
After speaking, he waved his hand.
Two servants stepped forward, one on each side, and grabbed Shangguan Wanqing's arms, dragging her outside.
"Father!" Shangguan Wanqing struggled to her feet, tears finally streaming down her face uncontrollably. "You can't do this! I'm your daughter!"
“It is precisely because you are my daughter that I must make you understand,” Shangguan Wuji coldly looked at the snow outside the window, “that in this world, emotions are the most useless thing. They will blind you, soften your heart, destroy your will, and ultimately kill you, as well as the people you care about!”
"take away!"
The guards dragged Shangguan Wanqing away.
"Father, Father!" Her cries echoed in the corridor, shrill and desperate.
Shangguan Wuji stood by the window, motionless, just as he had been all these years.
Only when the cries completely disappeared at the entrance to a cellar and the corridor returned to deathly silence did he slowly turn around and look at the empty doorway.
Over the course of more than fifty years, he has experienced countless such scenes.
Alone and isolated, has he truly become all alone and isolated?
On the table, the flame of the kerosene lamp flickered, reflecting the complex expression on his face.
There was ruthlessness, reluctance, and struggle, but in the end, it all turned into a cold and resolute determination.
A cold wind, mixed with snowflakes, rushed in and stung his face.
During the day, Xishan Farm resembles a desolate post-apocalyptic fortress!